As GOP combs church belfries for a mayoral candidate, White laps Gahan.

I'm more convinced than ever that the single best GOP candidate for mayor of New Albany already has filed to enter the race.

His name is David White.

Inconveniently for the GOP's Chris Lane, White is somewhat weirdly contesting the primary as a DemoDisneyDixiecrat.

White's platform is 48% state chamber of commerce "economic development" boilerplate, 49% recitation of his own business career, and in the main, utterly indistinguishable from Mitt Romney's trickle-down, one-percenter pats on the head.

To be sure, White mostly steers clear of right-side social issues, and espouses a libertarian stance in matters of conscience. I'll credit him for that. He might be ready to support downtown street network reforms -- publicly, no less. However, I'm not the one to issue that particular press release. We'll see.

In a perfect local cosmos, White would be a shoo-in to defeat Jeff "Down Low on the Ohio" Gahan, the DemoDisneyDixiecrat incumbent, who cannot run on the basis of economic plans he obviously has not bothered to concoct. White is in a position to smash to kindling Gahan's dubious record of scattershot non-connectivity by relentlessly questioning the deficit financing making possible the mayor's shiny new beads.

White's big problem?

Gahan is the club. He looks in the mirror each morning and sees an amalgam of RFK, FDR and Dr. King, and while this brings to mind Hans Christian Andersen's famous trouserless formulation, it undoubtedly appeals to local DemoDisneyDixiecrats who purchased their mirrors at the same delusional chain store ... or who reside on the accredited side of the gravy train's seemingly limitless tracks.

My own electoral territory come autumn encompasses everything and everyone to the left of White, excepting those few diehards who choose to ignore the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and persist in the belief that local Democrats are democratic. I see this terrain as more expansive than commonly imagined. How would we know when so few have ventured into it?

It's hard to see how a Republican fits into any of this. Perhaps the GOP will dispense with economics entirely, and run a fundamentalist preacher instead.

Wait continues for GOP mayoral candidate in New Albany, by Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

NEW ALBANY — Floyd County Republican Party Chairman Chris Lane expects to present a candidate for New Albany mayor by the end of the week.

Though he declined to name the people, Lane said Tuesday two candidates have emerged and are basically deciding among themselves which will file for the race.

“They’re just trying to make it a cooperative effort,” he said. “They really don’t want a primary.”